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Sazed was about to leave the roo at the back Another doorway

He nore the dried blood at his feet, and entered a chamber that didn't see architecture It was cut directly into the stone, and it twisted down into a very small stairwell Curious, Sazed walked down the set of worn stone steps For the first ti, he felt cramped, and he had to stoop as he reached the bottom of the stairwell and entered a sht, and held up his lamp to reveal

A wall The rooht sparkled off the wall It held a steel plate, like those above This one was a good five feet across, and nearly as tall And it bore writing Suddenly interested, Sazed set down his pack and stepped forward, raising his lamp to read the top words on the wall

The text was in Terris

It was an old dialect, certainly, but one that Sazed could e coppermind His hand trembled as he read the words

I write these words in steel, for anything not set in un to wonder if I a Can the others not see? They have been waiting so long for their hero to come--the one spoken of in Terris prophecies--that they quickly juend applies to this one nore the other facts They cannot connect the other strange things that are happening They are deaf to my objections and blind to ht Perhaps I am mad, or jealous, or simply daft My name is Kwaan Philosopher, scholar, traitor I am the one who discovered Alendi, and I aes I am the one who started this all

And I am the one who betrayed him, for I no that he must never be allowed to complete his quest

"Sazed"

Sazed ju the lamp Marsh stood in the doorway behind hi, and so dark He fit this place, with its lines and hardness

"The upstairs quarters are empty," Marsh said "This trip has been a waste-- of use with the back to the plate of text He hadn't read all of it; he hadn't even gotten close The script ritten in a tight, cra the wall The steel had preserved the words despite their obvious age Sazed's heart beat a little faster

This was a fragment written by a Terris philosopher--a holy , the Keepers had never fulfilled the original goal of their creation: they had never discovered their own Terris religion

The Lord Ruler had squelched Terris religious teachings soon after his rise to power His persecution of the Terris people--his own people--had been the n, and the Keepers had never foundwhat their own people had once believed

"I have to copy this down, Marsh," Sazed said, reaching for his pack Taking a visual memory wouldn't work--no man could stare at a wall of so much text, then remember the words He could, perhaps, read them into his coppermind However, he wanted a physical record, one that perfectly preserved the structure of lines and punctuation

Marsh shook his head "We will not stay here I do not think we should even have co up Then he pulled several large sheets of paper fro That will be better anyway, I think It will let me see the text exactly as it ritten"

Marsh nodded, and Sazed got out his charcoal

This discoveryhe thought with excite close!

However, even as he began the rubbing--his hands ht occurred to him With a text like this in his possession, his sense of duty would no longer let hies He had to return to the north to share what he had found, lest he die and this text be lost He had to go to Terris

Orto Luthadel Froes north He had a valid excuse to get back to the center of action, to see the other crewain

Why did that uilty?

When I finally had the realization--finally connected all of the signs of the Anticipation to Alendi--I was so excited Yet, when I announced ers, I was met with scorn

Oh, hoish that I had listened to them

13

MIST SWIRLED AND SPUN, LIKE ht died in the west, and night cae

Vin frowned "Does it see earlier?"

"Earlier?" OreSeur asked in his muffled voice The kandra wolfhound sat next to her on the rooftop

Vin nodded "Before, the ht?"

"It is dark, Mistress"

"But they're already here--they started to gather when the sun was barely beginning to set"

"I don't see that it matters, Mistress Perhaps the mists are simply like other weather patterns--they vary, soe to you?"

"I will think it strange if you wish me to, Mistress," OreSeur said

"That isn't what I ize, Mistress," OreSeur said "Tell me what you do mean, and I will be certain to believe as co her broish Sazed were backshe thought It was an idle wish, however Even if Sazed were in Luthadel, he wouldn't be her steward The Terriser called any man master She'd have to make do with OreSeur The kandra, at least, could provide inforet it out of him

"We need to find the impostor," Vin said "The one whoreplaced someone"

"Yes, Mistress," OreSeur said

Vin sat back in theher arms back on the tiles "Then, I need to know more about you"

"Me, Mistress?"

"Kandra in general If I' to find this impostor, I need to kno he thinks, need to understand his motivations"